Dive Brief:
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Many online customers are furious with Canadian department store Hudson’s Bay, which over the weekend canceled several orders with multiple submissions of coupon codes.
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Customers were using coupons that piled 25% off on top of 20% off, leading to great deals on expensive items. Some of the codes were meant for loyalty customers, but got under the fingertips of other shoppers through sharing sites like RedFlagDeals.com.
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Hudson’s Bay said it canceled the orders because its pricing policy didn’t allow for multiple coupons and that sharing the codes were against its terms of use.
Dive Insight:
Since the weekend, Hudson’s Bay Facebook page has been a cauldron of angry comments from customers with canceled orders. Many bring up the fact that the department store’s website initially allowed the discounts through.
While the retailer no doubt lost money on some of the items in question, letting things go and quietly correcting the e-commerce snafu may have been less expensive in the long term than the ill will brought by canceling orders after the fact.